Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.

Submitter's Comments:
When I started out making cakes, almost exactly a year ago, I discovered the 2010 winners gallery and was gutted that I'd just missed out, nevertheless I made the yeti cake as practice, and was going to enter it this year but when I look back and see how much my skills have progressed, I feel ashamed that I ever made the yeti cake at all.
Anyway, this year my first entry is "My Playtree". I chose this design because I wanted the challenge of making the floating effect of the landmass, and I liked the way everything was drawn in blue. I checked to see if anyone else had done this design before, some art teachers had, but it was way different that what I had planned.
I started out by making a base from an old kitchen cupboard door, and then screwed 2 pieces of brush handle into it, and screwed a circle of MDF onto that. Then I moulded Rice Krispie treats onto the underneath and covered it in a layer of thin white fondant to keep it up there when it was turned the right way up. this was my way of making the floating effect, and i put a 10" cake on top of the MDF circle then covered the whole thing in thicker fondant and got to carving the woody roots effect in the side.
I made the grass with a thick layer of fondant so the edges could be cut sharply enough and still hold up rather than snap or go brittle.
I used 5mm dowel as a central support for the tree cakes.
I baked 6 smaller 7 inch cakes in total, 3 of which were plain pound cakes, 3 were vanilla choc chip pound cakes.
I decided to decorate the whole island before moving onto stacking the tree cakes up, this proved to be successful, but I probably could have done it altogether just as easily.
creating the figure was fun, and he has a skewer sticking through his body to keep him upright. All the blue drawing lines were done using an edible marker with a fine tip.
I stacked the tree cakes and covered them with a layer of fondant that was thicker in the place where the shelves were going to be, this was so that I could indent the shelves quite deeply without going into cake.
the biggest branch on the left has a cocktail stick into the cake as I wasn't sure about the weight of it, but everything else is just stuck on there.
I carved all the books with a Stanley knife blade, and painted them with gel paint, this was time consuming but well worth the effort.
the ladders and clouds were made from hardened gum paste, and I'm real glad the clouds stayed up there, I was afraid they might shatter as soon as i lifted them.
All in all I think its turned out well, and tastes awesome, I just need someone to help me eat it now.